The French artist Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) is probably best remembered -- and was also celebrated in his own day -- for his beautiful paintings of flowers. And very beautiful they are -- you can see a whole lot of them here. But he painted other things as well, and here is La Lecture (Reading), painted in 1877. I can't help noticing that there's not a great deal of joy here -- either it's a very sad novel, or a frightfully serious and worthy book of sermons, perhaps.
Latour's flower paintings were so famous that he had a rose named after him and here it is. Many years ago I had one in my garden in Oxford, and this has reminded me that I'd like to have one here in France.
